Salon 72 // Environment

Hello and welcome. Hello and welcome to Techspressionism 72, our 72nd and now monthly salon. My name is Lee. I'm in Montreal, Canada, and I'm your co-moderator for today's salon, along with Jaime Bautista, and he's going to be doing the second half. I'm doing the first half, and so we'd love to welcome everybody to the salon, and the theme for today is the environment, and if you just got in, you missed a preamble. We were talking about the state of the planet and if the planet will survive, climate change, the fact that it was the warmest recorded day in human history on July the 4th, and that there's a lot of serious things going on with the planet that we got to take care of. Of course, when we decided to do the environment theme for this month's salon, we did say that it's environmental, it's the planet, but also for some people, it's an internal environment, or even the office environment, or some other way that they want to express their feelings in a Techspressionist way about the environment.

Lee Schnaiberg // Montreal CA

Those are the things we've been talking about. Most of us here, or I'd say all of us here, care deeply about where the planet is going and the state of the planet right now, and I think without further ado, I'd like to start introducing people to take the stage. The only thing I am going to say is I will be keeping my eye on the clock, so about four minutes in, I'll say something quietly like one minute, and then it's time to start wrapping up so that we get as many people in. Thank you so much for being here, and I hope you enjoy the salon.

Lee Schnaiberg // Montreal CA

Without further ado, I'm going to start with the people. Oh, and by the way, if anybody does want to speak, go down to the bottom of the Zoom where it says comments, reactions, and there's a hand, and put up your hand, and then we'll put you in the queue to share your work. So without further ado, I'd like to pass the stage to Sahar Moussavi, and Sahar, welcome, and take it away.

Lee Schnaiberg // Montreal CA

Hi.

Hi, everyone. Hi, everyone. I'm Sahar Moussavi. I'm Zooming from Iran present today. I'm going to share my screen. I'm not learning how to share. I'm sorry. Can you see my screen? Yes. Yes. Okay. So we are going to talk about environment today. I'm Sahar Moussavi. I'm Zooming from Iran. I'm right now in Tehran.

Sahar Moussavi

Ah, I want to talk about nature in our culture. Nature held great significance and respect in ancient Persia. The ancient Persians had a deep reverence for the natural world and believed in the interconnectedness of all living beings. According to different beliefs and cultures, trees are considered as valuable and sacred beings and Iranian also have much respect tree.

Sahar Moussavi

I want to talk about one special tree today and that is Cyprus Three. Cyprus Tree is one of the trees with symbolic concepts and mythological power among the Iranians. The Cyprus Tree held great symbolism in ancient Persia and Iran in 2018. Ancient Persia and was considered a significant cultural and religious symbol.

Sahar Moussavi

According to the Iranian epic Shahnameh, the tree had grown from a branch Zoroaster had carried away from paradise and which he planted in honor of King Vishtas conversion to Zoroastrianism. In Mithraism, it is believed that Meh or Mithra was born inside a cypress tree. Some of the symbolic associated with the cypress tree in ancient Persia are immortality and everlasting connection with the divine or paradise.

Sahar Moussavi

Connection spiritual as an evil. We can see cypress tree in different ancient illustrations that I have chosen some to show you. We can see cypress tree in tiles, rocks and textiles in ancient Persia and today. My country is not only facing political and economical disasters, but environmental catastrophes as well, such as sea and air pollution, deforestation, desertification, water shortage and other problems.

Sahar Moussavi

Recently, I have added cypress tree to my artwork. I'm taking pictures, I'm going around my place and taking pictures of Caspian Sea and my environmental, the natural environment near my place. I'm taking the pictures with my iPhone and I'm combining it with 3D renders of different objects with a cypress tree on top or in the picture.

Sahar Moussavi

Incorporating the cypress tree as a symbol of the city, symbol of environmental protection and cultural heritage is a meaningful way to express my concerns and values that a cypress tree can serve as a central focus representing the need to protect and preserve our environment. I'm going to show you some of my recent artworks.

Sahar Moussavi

I took this picture near my place. It's a Caspian Sea and then I added objects that I rendered in 3D. If you are familiar with my work, I usually use 3D Studio Max renders and I collage it with different pictures. Other work that I added cypress tree in spheres and I made it like a surreal scene. And I took this picture of trashes and plastics. People just live beside the sea. And what catch my attention is that someone's actually swimming there in the sea. And I use this picture and I use the cypress tree and actually like a symbol of a symbol that is protecting the environment.

Sahar Moussavi

One minute. One minute. Another. Some of my things are like similar, but I have created these planets or spheres or surreal objects with cypress tree. And also the picture is taken by myself. It's Caspian Seashore in Iran. I took this picture in summer 2018 and there's a water shore. The water level was such very low at that time because there wasn't the rain level. There wasn't raining at all. And I added I really liked this picture. I didn't you know the sea was amazing you know I didn't change it that much the reflections were great and actually this lake is near our house and it's a colony of birds are living there but I don't know what kind of birds are living there but the population became half that summer. So I added something like a portal as a symbol of resistance or bravery, or giving up, warding off the evil so it can protect the lake.

Sahar Moussavi

This picture also I took the same time in 2018, summer 2018. And I really liked this picture because the birds were really nice and the reflection was great, but the water level was so low that everyone was concerned that the lake will go, you know, like it will disappear sometime. But hopefully this summer we had a great rain and the lake is good and healthy.

Sahar Moussavi

I want to show you two animations if I can, but I don't know how to get up. I can change my screen. I'm sorry. How can I go out? Unshare and then share. Okay. Unshare and then find what, yeah. Okay, here. This one I have posted this piece on Instagram. I hope you can see the short motion piece. I took the video with my phone and added a tree and a stem.

Sahar Moussavi

So it's not a cypress tree. And another one that I posted recently, Galaxy of Cypress. My purpose was to say that it's a tree that should be respected and it's very symbolic for us. Sahar, we can't actually see the videos. We just see your presentation screen. Can't see it, but actually, but I said one minute a couple. I don't know if you heard me when I said one minute. It's okay. I will. I stopped sharing. I was, the last video was the one I posted on my Instagram.

Sahar Moussavi

Those are really wonderful works though. And thanks for sharing. Thank you. Thank you. Please share your Instagram Sahar. Instagram handle so we can. Okay. Yeah. Can you share it for me? Absolutely. Thank you. Put it in the comments so we can get to it. In the chat. And I gotta, maybe I'm too meek. I'm gonna be a little bit louder when I say the one minute next time. But next please, Marlo.

Can you show us your work? Hi, thanks Sahar. That was beautiful. The work and also hearing about what's going on in your country. Yeah, thank you. So I have put together a little presentation and I'm going to share. I'm working on a body of work. Let me shut this, this down here. That's related to, I'll tell you a really brief story. As you look at one of the flat pieces, I am going to share an animation as well as four, five flat pieces. The story is about a dog that came into my life when I was in college and was with me for 16 years. And the thing that amazed me about her was how she practically saved my life numerous times by censoring who I could pick up hitchhiking. This was in the 70s. But also the fact that when we went hiking in places neither of us had been, she could just dart through the woods, through brambles, over rocks, around trees at full speed.

Marlow Shami

And I couldn't understand how she did that. And fast forward 20, 30, 40 years, all of my attractions had to do with that particular story and that animal and also nature in my life as a child. So I studied energy medicine, eco-psychology, the chakra system, etc. So the series I'm working on right now, is a store show that will come up in the spring. And the video has no sound yet, but it's called Wonder Soup, which has everything to do with the soup of energy we all are in. I believe we're all connected. And the video, you'll see there's a color palette. It goes through the visible spectrum that we as humans, most of us can see. And there are qualities with each of those red, orange, yellow, green, indigo. A blue, indigo, violet, related to our creation process. So I was thinking about creating art and creating life when I was putting this video together, this animation, as well as the flat pieces.

Marlow Shami

So let me start with the video. I'm going to share it, actually play it. As I said, no music yet, but there will be music and natural sound. And we start here, obviously, with the red, the first chakra. If you want to talk chakra, the red, the first or longest wavelength in the spectrum. This is our creative energy, the orange or the second chakra.

Marlow Shami

Sensual creativity. And then we move into the will chakra, which has the color palette. The color yellow associated with it. Many qualities having to do with creating, making, forging ahead. Here we have the heart chakra, which actually is green on the spectrum. But I combine red because we associate red with the heart.

Marlow Shami

Blue about communication, voicing what we're going to create or make of our lives. Or our art. Indigo is about the vision, the third eye, so to speak. And of course, the grand finale would be violet, really feeling connected with our source. And I just review the seven chakras here. There are many different systems. I go with the seven chakras just because 20 years ago when I studied, that was the particular focus of the energy. Energy medicine that I was studying.

Marlow Shami

And there are all the colors. Okay. So when I create an animation, sometimes I get stuck and I try to find a way to get out of it. Usually it's making something flat. So this is chakra one, red. You can see all the colors that one would find in the whole spectrum. One minute. Okay. This is the second chakra. Orange is about creativity. I love fish, carp fish in this case.

Marlow Shami

This is the will chakra moving forward. This is the heart chakra. And here is the voice. So. All set. Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you so much. And next is Renata. Please. Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. Speaking to you from the South Carolina Lowcountry. I am a member of the Gullah Geechee Nation of the South Carolina Lowcountry. We are descendants of African slaves and forced laborers that were brought from the West Coast of Africa to the South, usually through the ports in Charleston, South Carolina. To run the plantations, do all the work on the plantations that fueled the wealth building of the Americas and European nations as well. And of course, when civil war broke out, we were able to move to the South Carolina Lowcountry. But because of the labor crisis and the Civil War that occurred, most of the whites fled the area where I live, which is in the coastal region and islands off the coast of South Carolina.

Marlow Shami

And the enslaved people, the newly freed slaves were left behind and stayed in this region. And because of the isolation from the mainland, developed a language and belief system that pretty much stayed at its point of development. We were able to move in this region. At the same point of development as what it was during the Civil War times. So we are called, as I said, the Gullah Geechee Nation of South Carolina Low Country. And in recent years, we have become, well, people have become more aware of my ethnic region and have taken steps to protect us from land developers. The tendency is to come to our area, see its pristine environment, and look at the people, you know, my people, who have great respect for the land and who have taken great care in sharing the methods of how to be considerate with the earth that we lived on, how to be respectful to the oceans and whatnot.

Marlow Shami

And they want to fetishize it and make money off of it and develop golf courses and pay for it. And they want to pave over their farmlands and whatnot. And thus far, we've been successful in getting levels of protection against greedy land developers. That's basically what they are. So last year, I did a series of artificial intelligence collaborations, Night Cafe, to address how we mistreat the earth. And the title of the series is Wounded Earth. And it was written as a, it was created as a collaboration with two other artists. And it was sponsored by the nonprofit Artly World. So let me share my screen here.

Marlow Shami

Okay, can you see everything? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Alrighty. So the series is short, there are three of them. And this is... I didn't get that. Could you try again? Okay, I have a hyperactive Siri on my computer. So try to... Could you just press F on your keyboard so we see it full screen? I did and it didn't happen. Okay. Okay. So this is represents the book colleague approach to rendering pictures of the earth. It is vineyard-ish and water-ish. And the artificial intelligence prompts involved how artists are valuable to society because they make things that are valuable to society. So we use art in order to interpret realities that are often painful to look at. So we usually start here with things all nice and gorgeous and whatnot.

Marlow Shami

And innocent looking. I'm trying to, you have to pull up one minute and go back. Okay, can you see what I'm? No. No, you can't? Okay, let me start. Go back in. Okay, let me see. Okay, let me see. Okay, let me see. Okay, you see now? We're seeing it. For some reason, I'm not progressing in this series. So I'm going to pull out and let someone else go ahead. And then I'll come back at the end. Okay. So I don't want to waste time. We're seeing it now. Yes. But you aren't seeing the other images that are attached with it. Do you have a button at the top, Brenda, that allows you to share? Because we're basically seeing you're working Photoshop.

Marlow Shami

You know, we see all your tools and things. When you hit. A certain button. When I do, there's a button at top that says share.

And expands the image. Am I communicating that properly? Anybody else have something to add to that? That's. Yeah, it's not. For some reason. Photoshop means for share. That means send it to people. If you hit the F key, it should make it full screen. But yeah. Let's share. Let's see. I'll keep it to the end, though, if we can. Because we're. Yes. Yes. Let's move on. And I hope I'm not too meek when I say one minute. I don't know if you hear me. But I'm going to try to be louder about that. And I'm passing it over to Anne, please. Ann Shapiro. Please take the stage. Okay. I'll take the stage. Let's see if I can share the screen.

Ann Shapiro

And let's see. Is it full? Let's. Let's open up and see if I got something coming. Okay. Do you see us? Are you anybody able to see this? We see your G drive. Yeah. I see an image. Ah. Do you see an image? Yes. Yes. Okay. Is that better? Okay. Yeah. That's against a gray background now. Okay. All right. I've been working in climate change since. Oh, too. That's my environment. I got involved. I are my urge and my, I guess I'm, my desire in the sense to talk about climate change comes from childhood days of my grandparents and my, well, my grandparents ended up on an island off the coast of Maine where they, built a home and had a family and I summered there for years and, got very attached to the coastal landscape, especially, but the landscape in particular, and I have done, or I'm doing it's ongoing a series of work on calling, raging, raging, maps and climate change.

Ann Shapiro

And there is, I did show someone a while ago. And I think it was a little bit of a shock to the group. And it was more, I guess I would say pedantic in the sense I would put in graphs and charts and this is what's going to happen. This is what's happening, you know, thinking that's going to really solve the problem. And then, you know, I got so frustrated, although I recently did a piece on the Pakistan issue, the flooding. And I decided to do a series of work, just my gut response to what's going on in, in the.

Ann Shapiro

So, this is, it's called foreboding and, I don't know why I've buried this over here. All right. This I call, something else, Dawn Cove with notebook. These are all, all my pieces are layered. They're all in Photoshop. I take, images from, my, this is all my own photography. And or drawing most of the stuff is layered manipulated and changed. Tell obviously I hope it's getting the message done of look what we're doing to our environment.

Ann Shapiro

These are all, since they're digital, they can be shown. I create them at either 18 by 24 or 24 by 32. And they can go up. I've shown this as large as 65 by 95 inches. And it does make an impact. Impact whether it's good or not I guess there's others to judge I think so well I don't know why this all right you're seeing it all right this is basically it's the Gulf of Maine it was a in 2021 the heat the Gulf of Maine was temperate highest temperature and it remained that for 12 for 12 months and this is it's just heartbreaking they it used to be this is in derail Maine and it used to be what they called sub-arctic it no longer is sub-arctic I don't know how long it's not been sub-arctic and this is the last one I'm showing I got a large series and again my response to what's going on and I guess I just call this transformation and there we are I can stop the share thank you thank you I'm all set next am I not hearing Lee are you there are you frozen oh they're moving you're muted though it was beautiful I got kicked out I apologize for that those are beautiful hand thanks

And now Renetta thank you Lee and then I just wanted to say how happy I am that the new time has allowed a few people to join us who otherwise was difficult for them so I would like to welcome Moritz Albrecht from Frankfurt and we have Amel Avika from India and of course Sahar from Iran it's really a good I really feel good about the time change and I hope we continue to grow. And there's also a new member today, Stephen Paré from Texas.

Renata Janiszewska

It's his first time. But he's been involved with digital art for quite some time. I was in a group show with him in 2021. And that's how I actually got involved more with doing things over Zoom. So this particular topic was challenging. I live in a very beautiful natural part of the world. Lion's Head is the name of the village. And it's on the northern Bruce Peninsula. And mostly I work with my own images. And I use them. Sorry. I use them over and over.

Renata Janiszewska

So in other words, I cannibalize my own work a great deal. So a drawing will become part of an animation. And then I'll take a still out of that animation and work over top of that. And I'm just having an issue here with there. So here you have. Something that looks like a human face on the right. You can see an eyebrow and I've blacked out the eye with this bit of brushwork.

Renata Janiszewska

And when I saw this after I had made it. It really reminded me of a painting by her name agreed to the famous surrealist from Belgium. Just the idea of a woman's face being made up of other. Other things. So I'm working with a. And these are examples of how completely grotesque and concorded contorted.

Renata Janiszewska

The AI can make images. But what I really enjoy is painting over top of the background. So here's a still at the back. And this uses the brushes that I have devised and the brushes I'll zoom in for you. They. Sometimes come from my own drawings and sometimes they come from. Various sources like the cartoonist.

Renata Janiszewska

Graphic novelist. Elche. So you also can see the different levels of clarity. And that shows you how many layers there are. And then this next one. So. Is based on a character named La Casta Fior. She's a. An opera singer. Diva. And here she is pushing Captain Haddock in a wheelchair. And these brushes move and they bend and they take on the color of the background. So her skirt is the color of the background there because there are parts of them are transparent. And here's another bit where. Tantan is. Confronting a giant red mushroom that's bigger than he is.

Renata Janiszewska

So. In terms of how does this relate to the environment? These are. Environments. In and of themselves and they're complex little worlds that I. Get lost in and I often spend a lot of time. In that. Kind of space. This is a based on a photograph that I treated and then it's. It's had a lot of other.

Renata Janiszewska

Shapes and images put on top of it. And this is one of the images I showed you near the beginning. The kind of replace see with a host of various brushwork on top. And. Okay. This is the Warholian face. That came out of an animation. And. I will show you. A little just a little portion of it without sound.

Renata Janiszewska

I'm working on a series for the wrong. Digital biennial and they're all animated faces. And here's a still from one of my animations with. A new brush chain brush that you can see on the left. And another view of the woman's face much darker. More. This is about as complex as I think I should get. I don't really want to go any more. Complicated than this.

Renata Janiszewska

Here's a more simple. Kind of Russian fairy tale style image of a woman lying on the earth. And dreaming of a, of a better future for the planet. And here's a pixelated. Style that I'm just starting to explore another part of the faces. Series. Thank you. Thank you. Really beautiful. Thank you. Thanks for sharing.

Renata Janiszewska

Lucy. Lucy Boyd Wilson. Take the stage. I'm sorry for rushing everybody. I just want to make sure everybody gets a chance. I hope that's okay. Please Lucy. It's

Your turn. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today. This is wonderful to see me and wonderful to be here and see all your work. I grew up in England in the country and spent all my childhood until. Mid teens running around in fields and woods and trees and climbing trees. And this is what I love. And this is what I express. Love of our land. And if I can express that so that everybody can feel the love of their lands, then we'll really take care of it. So this is basically everything I do. And I'll just share my screen. And I just selected a handful of animations to show.

Lucy Boyd-Wilson

All right, so we'll start with field flowers. Field flowers. Field flowers. Field flowers. Oops, what happened to my folder? My folder just fell. Sorry, everybody. This is very boring. All right. A rainforest. I love jungles. The music for this was by my two friends, Karen Soriano and Mitchell Walker.

Lucy Boyd-Wilson

Ditch and flute as just lovely, moody music. And this one is a stormy sunset so It was fun selecting the sound for that. And I was finding storm sounds and it just was like too literal and not interesting. And this was an instrument called a thunder tube by a musician called Della Deb. And I just thought it was just like so impactful. The audio was very fun. And last one is Shape of Wind.

Lucy Boyd-Wilson

Shape of Wind That's it, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Is Lee in here? Not seeing him. I don't know if he got booted off his connection. I got kicked out. There you are. I lost my internet connection. I figured. I'm so sorry about that. Those are beautiful. And as it would happen, though, now we're passing the state, the modding ship over to Jaime for the second time. And in the second half, we're going to pass to Jaime. And I apologize if I booted out of here, but I'm happy to be back. So take it away,

Jaime. Hello, everybody. I'm very happy to have such a strong team of expressionists. With your artwork, we can make a difference all the time. We have been really struggling with our environment. And I'm very sure that we will continue to do so. And I'm sure we can make a difference in the future. Okay. This is Jaime. I'm from Astoria, New York. Right here is 1246.

Jaime Bautista

And as you know, my background is in architecture and art. And I have seen many things within our environment. I'm into planning, building, and building towns, camps, and all that. That's from the positive side. At the same time, I see things like we have been destroying in the other side. So on one side we build, and the other side we destroy.

Jaime Bautista

Now, to make a difference is based in our childhood. If we learn how to be respectful to our nature, things will be different. If we don't, then we will have to face the consequences for the next generations. There are many great artists that have been representing the environment. Some of them are Maya Lin, Crystal, to name a few. But that's them. Now, we are in a different environment. And I would like to count with all that you do. And I appreciate the work that you do. And also, I see that you have a very strong work. And that's valuable for our expressionism Salon 72, which happens to be a good platform to express our art.

Jaime Bautista

Right now, I'm going to jump into a short video. Just two videos. One minute each. Don't get me wrong. I do have a vision for the future as an architect. But also, I see the negative side. And today, I'm going to show the negative side. Bear with me, please. Can you see it? Yes. Okay. This is one minute video.

Jaime Bautista

Okay. First off, let me share some notes from work with Aleya Godman and synthetics responsecleaning about communication skills that impact communication skills for indigenous peoples in participation with deaf communities and presup Immer Additional info information comes In order for me to make these videos, I use my experience in architecture and photography. And I'm using DaVinci for the video. And I use Blender for the buildings. And I use also Revit and Maya.

Jaime Bautista

At some point, also I use the sound editor, which is HNC. And I take it from there. I'm going to show a second video now. Hi, May. Are we supposed to be hearing anything? Because there wasn't any sound on the last one. Yes, that's also that I see the problem with the sound. That it doesn't... You might have to stop your share and then reshare. And then there's a checkbox.

Jaime Bautista

Is for enable computer audio or something like that before you start sharing on the Zoom prompt. Interesting. When I run this sound. No sound? No. No sound then.... I will share this video after... Yes. This is completed I do not know why the sound doesn't work we tried before and this is blocking anyway this is basically what we will see if we don't care about the environment anyway so I apologize for the sound I had this issue before so I do not know why that worked anyway so by straight by I don't know if you just saw the concept this is where we do not care about the nation and we see this the blind zones every city right now and we have to react we do not have to make comments about other places in the world when we have our own problems here in usa so I would like you to be more responsible that way it's up to all of us to be responsible for what we do from now I'm going to jump to the next person that would like to continue in the presentation this concludes my presentation at this point okay who would like to be the next presenter looks like susan or okay susan you are off hi susan hi I'm here take

The stage please yes I'm gonna lower my hand hi I'm going to do a screen share okay are you seeing my yeah okay so I'm okay here we go I'm just I'm going to talk extemporaneously a little bit about the my connection to art in the environment with my art before I started doing digital work I made pieces that in a series called worship of the worship of precious and there were two themes one was dragonfly and the other was cactus and I'm going to show you a few of the dragonfly pieces and I continue I continue using the dragonfly in work in collaborative work and a project I'm involved in through the international online art collective that we'll be showing in the fall and these are pieces that are made with transfer and transfer lifts using that medium now I used to use acetone at one point and then watercolor and know they're about there for you pencil, and pen.

Susan Detroy

And these are all part of that series that I was making. So fast forward to from 2016 to 2023, I've been creating a series of work called Portrait of a Woman, where I use my own face. And basically, it got started through my feelings about aging. And I jumped into using my own face. That with environmental elements as a somewhat of a metaphor speaking about the changes in the environment related to humans and female humans and how our faces change and these are a few of those pieces that are created digitally with iPhone and iPad and then they're also available also I make them into canvas this was a little bit of foray into AI and there's some of these pieces are have been translated into moving pieces that I offer as NFTs this one's called Love Rains and this one's not been minted but you have one minute oh my gosh okay so I also start do a hipstamatic and I'm going to just go through these quickly that I started a year ago using roses and I have a collection of an NFT collection of roses that move similarly that I did with my this is my latest one that I did okay I also wanted to show a little bit that I use an app called hip somatic camera and this a lot of this work I haven't it's really personal work that I create on my bike rides I bike ride almost every day and I go to urban and non-urban areas and use my cell phone to create these hip somatic captures and it's not something I share some on Instagram and I also this is in the industrial zone I'm going a little bit fast because I know there's time issue this was a bridge I got caught under in a rainstorm so I was under there for 20 minutes so I took a lot of photos of that bridge and also I wanted to share that I just got word today that I have an article featured in the app whisperer what oh I thought you said a minute already okay so I think I'm going to stop sharing stop thank you for fun that was really quick yeah thanks for paying attention and if I can figure it out I'm gonna put a link in the chat of the article the interview about and the app whisperer talk that I wrote about the apps that I was using and I'm going to put in the chat of the article so of that as well so that you can see that and so that you can see that you can see that and that is it for this video we are going to let you know what's up

In the next few minutes we are going to make it as good as we can we are going to make it as long as we can we are going to make it as long as we can we are going to make it as long as we can for the next few minutes we are going to make it as long as we can we are going to make it as long as we can we are going to make it as long as we can we are going to make it as long as we can for the next few minutes we are going to make it as long as we can we are going to make it as long as we can we are going to make it as long as we can we are going to make it as long as we can and seeing all the beautiful works and presentations. My name is Yuge Zhou. I'm a video artist based in Chicago.

Yuge Zhou

I'm also a curator for a unique public digital art installation entitled 150 Median Stream. So I just want to spend the next few minutes giving a brief introduction to the 150 Median Stream, which is part of the urban environment in Chicago. I'm going to share my screen. I'm not sure if any of you are based in Chicago or have visited Chicago.

Yuge Zhou

So the installation is located in downtown Chicago. It's a... Right across the river from the Merchant Esmar, Chicago, which is an iconic architectural building. It's on the west bank of the Chicago River. The installation is inside a commercial high-rise building, and the address is 150 North Riverside.

Yuge Zhou

So the installation is a large-scale installation. I'm going to just share a video of it. It's about 150 foot long and 22 feet tall, and it's compressed of 89 individual LED blades. This is our current featured artwork. So the arts program that I curated for the installation launched in 2017, and we've been featuring... Commissioned projects for artists and institutions since 2017. And we've worked with over 40 individual digital artists and cultural institutions. And this one you're looking at is by a Washington-based artist, Jonathan Manningin. He's represented by Bitforms Gallery in New York. But as you can see, the installation has this really unique look. It's a very unique blade shapes.

Yuge Zhou

And you can also check out some of our past featured works on our website. The website is 150medianstream.com. And on the archive page, there's a lot of works that we've featured previously. We've worked with institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, artists from different backgrounds and mediums. This is a collaboration with Bisa Butler and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Yuge Zhou

Show a quick... This is about two years ago when Bisa Butler had a solo show at the museum. So she's... Bisa is a fiber artist. She's a fiber artist. And we featured her fiber work, animated her fiber work on the installation. We've also worked with performance artists like the Joffrey Ballet. This is during the... The peak of the pandemic when the dancers from the Joffrey Ballet were not able to perform on stage. So this is their alternative stage for their performance. And we were very happy to be able to present it this way. You have one minute. That's great.

Yuge Zhou

Just one more video I guess I'm going to show. We also... When we launched a new work, we had a lot of people who were interested in it. We were able to host events and panel discussions with artists and as well as some performance events if the artists are interested. For example... And by the way, we also do a lot of virtual reality works.

Yuge Zhou

So... Just show... Just going to show you... A performance we've done. This is a collaboration between an animation artist and a jazz composer. So the music is synchronized with the content on the video wall. Which is an animation by the animation artist. It's a watercolor animation. Yes. Alright. OK. Thanks everyone for your attention. And again, the website is 150medianstream.com.

Yuge Zhou

You can check out our program. If you guys are ever in Chicago, please drop by. And if any of you are interested in submitting works, feel free to shoot me a note. I'm gonna just put down the website in the chat and the email to contact me. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you all much. It was awesome.

Yuge Zhou

Vernetta, please take the stage. Is Yaro on mute? Here we go for the second trial. Thank you. Okay.

My presentation is gonna be very brief. I only have three works. So let's start with the screen share. Okay. So I just pasted the documents in pages and hopefully you all can see it here. And this is the first in the Wounded Earth series that shows a pretty burden earth, the green earth, where water is easily and freely accessible.

Verneda Lights

Certainly that's the type of, you know, environment that I grew up in. And many of you also may have grown up in such an environment. And it certainly is what I remember of my childhood. And then we have becoming a rage of the destruction of earth. And this piece basically represents the earth itself and the layers that have been robbed of its precious metal and ores and plant life stripped away. You have a forest here. And we have like a woman lying on her side in the forest. And we see the skin layers and the muscle layers being dissected and removed.

Verneda Lights

And this sort of wanton destruction of resources that we see happening with their pollution and other ways of abusing our earth. And this one is entitled, Washed Away. And in Washed Away, we see all the calamities that we are experiencing now. And we see the water situation that's out of control. And when I did this, flood warnings were rare in my region. And now I get notices from the Weather Channel of flood warnings almost every day here in the low country, sometimes several times a day. And they send out warnings for small, crafts and vessels. A lot of the fishermen in this area have small boats and their trade is being interfered with by the rising waters and the unpredictable flooding that takes place. And then we also have the fires set out of control. And of course that's happening in Canada.

Verneda Lights

And the painting itself, the digital painting done in Night Cafe basically is just recapitulating the things that we do to hurt our earth, that are making our lives a lot harder to live and certainly a lot less filled with joy. And if we're not careful, we will be, our hearts will be charred, much like what we predict will happen with the fires here in the background. So really, Washed Away is something I hope we never see, but it looks like. It is inevitable.

Verneda Lights

So that is, yeah, stops here. That's it. Thank you, Renetta. Anybody would like to present their work? I don't see any raising hands. We should also consider anything that touches on the theme of environment. It doesn't necessarily have to be the Earth's environment. It could also be something like a 3D environment. Anything associated with that concept I would say is relevant.

Verneda Lights

So maybe that would open it up to some other artists. Okay. Any volunteers? We would like to see your work, whatever you have it. No. Okay. So, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. Well, if there isn't anyone that wants to share, there is something that Malavika sent me that she asked me to share. It's about an upcoming exhibition at her, her, I guess, organization, or it's called Collaborative Art Space. And I believe there's a deadline of July 10th. I'm going to just paste a link in the chat. I'm going to go to the website in the chat.

Verneda Lights

And the website is collaborativeartspace.com slash space. There's also a Google form to submit work, I believe. I'm going to paste that link in there. I think Malavika might have had some connection issues. But it looks like the topic is explore your definition of space. So, I'm going to put it up there. So, Malavika is a collaborative art space in Collaborative Art Space's second Biennale in collaboration with TASMAI, a Center for Art and Culture. And Malavika is based in India.

Verneda Lights

So, yeah, I would encourage anyone that's interested in submitting work to go to that website and check it out. And I do know that there was another thing brought up by Cynthia, Beth Rubin, that maybe could be shared during the salon instead of during the sort of after party that we have since we do have a little bit of time. And it could be of interest to, you know, the people listening. But we also want to thank people that are here during the recording session.

Verneda Lights

OK. So, actually, Cynthia DiDonato and I were talking about the idea of having some kind of virtual coworking time. Just maybe if this time works actually. It could be on the off weeks when we're not meeting where people would just come on and join Zoom and say, say, this is what I'm going to be working on for the next hour or hour and a half, whatever we think would work. And then at the end of that time, kind of share what they've done. So for people who are having a little trouble finding focus and motivation and feeling, I think a lot of us are still feeling a little isolated post-pandemic.

Verneda Lights

We wanted to experiment with this idea. So are people interested in that? I know the two Cynthia's are interested, so we could start. Any thoughts? You can unmute yourselves and say something. What about our time frame would be the same as this? Well, that's what we want to hear. I mean, I'm seeing in the chat that this time is really good for people. So maybe that would work. I mean, you know, for East Coast people, I was thinking earlier, but then I realized, oh, there are people on the West Coast. And I think this time seemed to work for people in other parts of the globe, too. So should I be?

Verneda Lights

On people? I guess. Okay. I wasn't paying attention whose hand went up first. They would be in order in terms of the people in the participants panel from the top down. I'm not quite seeing. Well, so that would make Renata first. Is that right? Okay. Hi, Cynthia. I just would like it if you could please reiterate and tell me if I got the right idea. So people come together at noon, and each person says, I'm working on this. And they show a picture of what they're going to be doing, where they just say it verbally, and then they work. And then at the end of the hour and a half, they present.

Verneda Lights

Is that right? Or it could even just be an hour, because if people are presenting, maybe that makes the whole thing too long. So it'd be an hour of working. It would be like, don't say anything about it. Just say, this is it. This is what I'm doing. And then you can kind of say more about it at the end. Susan, Detroit.

Verneda Lights

Hi, thanks. I like the idea for myself, but I don't have anyone who lives near me who does. I don't have any connections outside of online groups for people that do digital work. None. And I would participate from time to time, because I'm working from my iPad, and I'd love to share ongoing work in this group. Good idea. Thank you. It wouldn't be that much of a commitment of talking about it conceptually, the way we do it. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. It's just, this is how I started. This is how I am. The real goal is to set aside studio time when you know you're absolutely going to be working, and you don't have to share at all. You could just join.

Verneda Lights

So Stephen Pare, is that right? It's Peray. Thank you. All right. I appreciate you paying attention to that. Well, two things. First of all, I'm very eager to share. I'm very interested in doing something like that, connecting with people and showing my work. And it would be an occasion, an opportunity for me to work on several ongoing projects. The second thing is that I actually do have something to share today. I didn't come here planning to do that, but I'd love to. So if there's another minute or two, I'd love to share that with you. So if there's another minute or two, or two minutes, perhaps I could do that. So that sounds really good. Let's just hear first from Bernada on this. Bernada. I always say it wrong, and I've seen you in person even. Okay. No worries. No worries. I think it's a good idea.

Verneda Lights

12 noon is a bit difficult for me, but I don't mind making the time. You know, in order to be there when something very interesting is going on. So I have no problem zooming in and zooming out. I think it's a good idea that we meet more often because, you know, we've had years now of meeting on a fairly regular basis, you know, and I've kind of gotten used to it. So it feels kind of strange, the once a month meeting hookup. But sure, I'd be down to participate with the informal get togethers.

Verneda Lights

And we could also do more than one time because I think it only literally takes like three people. I mean, it doesn't take a large group, just for people who are feeling they need the motivation. So my thought was that we could start with this time and we could even, I suppose start next week. If that worked for people. I'm just looking at my calendar.

Verneda Lights

Next week doesn't work for me if you and I are going to start it together. Let's do the following week just because that would give people a little more time to think about it. Cynthia, would you be able to be a point of contact and maybe paste your email into the chat? So if people want to participate, you know, you could start getting a list together and send out a Zoom link, because I really personally can't take on any other commitments at this point. Yeah. And I actually have a Zoom, my own Zoom. I don't know why. I pay all this money just because.

Verneda Lights

This will be putting it to good use. Yeah. So why don't we try it in two weeks and then actually, you know, different people could take it on. As we move into the dates of SIGGRAPH, which is, oh, I guess two weeks after that is still. Anyway. So. In two weeks is the 13th. Is that right? Yes. Yep. July 13th. Okay. Just before. That's one week. That's one week. Two weeks is the 20th. Right.

Verneda Lights

Right, the 20th. Okay. I actually can't. I have a. I have a doctor's appointment at 10 of 11 on the 20th. And I don't think I can't promise to be done by 12 o'clock. So. 27th then? July 27th? You know what? Okay. Or Cynthia? Donata, if you want to get it started in two weeks. I mean, the doctor's appointment. I should be here. Can't. I'm babysitting my granddaughter.

Verneda Lights

Okay. Maybe Thursday isn't a good day. Maybe another day of the week is better. Or people. Maybe. How about if we see who's interested? And then once we know that we could send out what, what dates would work for the most people and then go from there. Is that an idea? Yeah. Okay. So I put my. Email.

Verneda Lights

In the. Chat. And. I will make up some kind of Google form. For people to fill out with preferred times and days of the week. Just like three of them or something. I've become a great fan of Google forms. So. And that way, maybe even people who decide they want to work together could pick a time that works for them. So that way. That way it works for those people. So it doesn't have to be a regular time so that we can get the maximum amount of people involved that want to get involved. I think that's a really good idea. I mean, I was thinking we could have a bunch of different times. So, and some people might want to do it like even twice in one week. So.

Verneda Lights

That would be good. And. Why have the floor? I just want to say something, but maybe this is like an after party thing. I mean, I've been thinking about this for a while now. And I think if anybody. If you go into Photoshop and you see that it has this save for the web function. And it keeps saying legacy because Adobe keeps trying to get rid of it. But I really urge people if you're going to present. To use the save for the web function and what it does is allow you to make JPEGs that go into a separate folder. And then when you present, you've just got this easy to present.

Verneda Lights

JPEGs and it's wonderful. So I can show anybody later how to do that. If I'm still able to share my screen later, it's just so easy and so wonderful. And it would solve everybody's who's using Photoshop, at least presentation problems, which is why as much as Adobe keeps trying to kill it. No one will let them kill it. Thank you for that one. And before we, we conclude. I have a question. I have something to share with you. The Patrogy Arts Council is inviting you to submit short videos for the festival, annual festival that is going to be in October.

Verneda Lights

I just share with you the link to that institution. I do not have any association with them. However, last year I participated in. That show. And it was a success. And in fact, one of my videos, my short film films was presented in during the festival. I encourage you to do your work, submit your field, and probably you will be portraying your work there. That's my only announcement right now.

Verneda Lights

The link is already in the chat. That's for everybody. Thank you. If we have a few minutes, I thought Steven was going to show us some work.

Okay. Yes, with pleasure. Again, so I hadn't planned on doing this, but I think I can give you something quick. I so. Would you just let us know where you're zooming in from, Steven, if you don't mind? Not at all. I'm in Houston, Texas. Under a heat dome. Yes, you are. So what I'd like to show you is a little bit of a book that I'm working on. And it is.

Stephen Paré

Let's see. Touches on genre science fiction and post-apocalyptic. So post-climate change catastrophe. I'm going to sort of throw you into the middle. So you'll. But that kind of works for me. Anyway, so I'll be showing you a couple of facing pages. I've written the story and stories and they created the digital images as well. So.

Stephen Paré

Let's see. Here we go. The book is entitled After the Flood. Welcome to Oasis, my friends. I've been expecting you for some days now. His eyes were large, sharp, assessing like an owl's, it seemed to me. I am Jonas Van Brugge. And these are my children, Albert and Philomena. His manner and bearing were studied and formal. His speech strangely. Antiquated as if it were drawn from books.

Stephen Paré

I understand all of that now, or at least I think so. His visceral dissatisfaction with the modern world was naturally joined to a preference for a better one. As he saw it. To the civilized behavior of a long past time. Beside him sat a young man with wiry jet black hair and steel blue eyes. And at his left side. The most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

Stephen Paré

She looked straight at me for a moment, blinking once. Was it irony? And returned her gaze to her father. They're about your age, aren't they, Captain? Perhaps a little younger. Your generation has suffered a lot, has it not? This wasn't a question that he expected an answer for, obviously. And in any case, I wasn't in any mood to share my thoughts. And innermost feelings. Perhaps I was annoyed at first by all of the rhetorical understatement.

Stephen Paré

By his pandering. By his flattering and speech making. But in spite of his self-importance, I liked him. He was charismatic, warm, and persuasive. For all the egotism and the pronouncements. But I was wary all the same. I couldn't help reflecting with some bitter irony. How his pandering. To the sufferings of my generation. For that is certainly how it sounded. Was not so very different from the pandering of his enemies. Our politicians. Who tried to win our allegiance similarly. By expressing their sympathy for the difficulties that they. And men like them had caused.

Stephen Paré

He went on. You were badly served by your leaders, that's certain. Even though I agreed with this. It wasn't a reason to switch my loyalty and dishonor my oath. He wasn't done making speeches. I did my best when I was your age. To fight their cowardice. And perfidy. To continue my father's courageous stand.

Stephen Paré

I think that's enough for now. Obviously, right in the middle. Threw you right in and took you right out again. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So if. Does anyone else have any. Presentations. Lucy, did you want to. Say something. I just have an announcement. Last year I created a dome film and it showed in a handful of. Dome film festivals. And it's going to be showing. In the metaverse, whatever that means. In the metaverse. On July the 20th. And there's a whole series of films showing one film a day in the metaverse. Starting tomorrow. For two weeks. And there's like some really wonderful dome films. And you can see them from your own. Computer. If you, if you have a headset, you can see, see them in VR. Or you can just see them. From a, from a web browser. And each day.

Stephen Paré

A different film will be showing 12. The entire day. From midnight to midnight. And each artist will be interviewed at some point during, during the day, varying times. And so my day, when my film is showing it's on July the 20th. And I will be interviewed. For about an hour. And I will be. At the end of the day. Starting at 10 30 Pacific time. So I'll just. Post.

Stephen Paré

Post a link to get more information in the chat. And that's it. I think we are. So one 30 on the dot. And I think we conclude this presentation. And from our side. Thank you very much to all the presenters. You have a very strong work. And we would like to see you more of your work in the future. And we look forward to seeing you again. Have a nice day.

Stephen Paré

So we're going to stop the recording. Colin, are you going to stop the recording and then. I will be. Hanging out for the after party. Yeah, I just want to thank all the presenters as well as. Our hosts. Lee and Jaime for taking the lead. With this. And, you know, certainly. In the after party, I would recommend that.

Stephen Paré

We start that off with. A proposal for the next salons topic. And I think there was some consensus. I'm not a hundred percent sure that whoever. Proposes the topic. Should do so with the understanding that they will also be moderating that salon. I'm not a hundred percent sure if that was. What was decided upon as far as consensus goes, but I'll leave that up to the group. Unfortunately, I have to take off. After the recording. So I'll leave it up to you guys. And Cynthia, if you could. You know, convey to me what that. Topic is that people agree on. That would be really great. You know, via email. And I'll continue to create the graphics for it and everything. I also wanted to commend you in the. And Cynthia did an auto for formulating this plan. Of a coworking sessions. I feel like that could be a very good model for a lot of people.

Stephen Paré

And I think it's really important that we have a way of. Groups like such as the different nodes. Where they might share a common language other than English. To get together and, you know, formulating groups to create working sessions. I think that could be really. You know, intelligent way of. Bringing nodes together versus necessarily. You know, gathering in a physical spot where they might be. Distributed across, you know, the geography of a different country. So, you know, I think it could serve very well as a, as a model for that. So that being said, thanks again for everyone that was presenting. And everyone who attended. It was an awesome salon and you know, the, the amount of sharing that happened was higher than normal. So I think that makes for a really interesting session and also.

Stephen Paré

It was a great session. And also for a great recording for, you know, People who aren't here to actually see a lot of art. So. On that note, I will bid you all adieu until next month. And hopefully, you know, some of you guys will also be able to attend these working sessions. And I certainly will, if I can. Get there. So I will stop the recording now. Nope. Actually, Cynthia, you're I threw you the host. So you'll have to stop. The recording.

Stephen Paré

It's there should be a button right next to the share. But. Stop.